New World, New Rules
by Korzark
Summary: Edward learns that the "Truth" of his world is not enough to bring his little brother back, but if his world's Truth is not enough, he is determined to travel to another world, find their Truth, and finally take what he had been chasing for his whole life. [[Rewrite of "A New Set of Rules"]]
1. Chapter 1

**Hey hey! Here's that "A New Set of Rules" rewrite! 60% of this chapter is literally just a copy and paste of chapter one in ANSR, but there are some elements that are changed and a new scene that is completely different from anything in ANSR which should neatly explain the premise of the story to new readers and also explain what's different to the old readers.**

 **I've written some notes at the bottom of this story and in the last chapter of ANSR explaining why I've made certain choices in this series and the old, so if you're interested check it out.**

* * *

The air was charged with a strange energy. Many events had led to this climax but even after the final blow was dealt, felling the creature who claimed to have harnessed god's powers for itself, conflicting emotions ran rampant. Nobody knew whether to cheer or cry. The young man who stood in the center of the clearing could barely register what had just happened.

On one hand, the threat was gone and humanity was saved but many lives were taken as the cost for victory. The young man morbidly noted that this small war seemed to follow the laws of equivalent exchange, just like the alchemy that had been used to end it.

He looked down at his feet to see a broken suit of armour that once housed the soul of his little brother. Alphonse had exchanged his soul so Edward could get his arm back once again. Edward was now in a frantic state of mind, thinking of all the possible ways to try and bring his brother back.

He promised Alphonse that he would never use a human soul to restore either of their bodies so the only option was to use something else. But there was nothing in the world that could be equivalent to a human life. Edward racked his brains to try and think of something that he could use.

With a spark of inspiration, he realized something that the world might consider to be even greater than a single human soul.

"May, back up," he said to the tear-stained girl who lay hunched over his brother's old body. Picking up a stick off the ground, he started to carefully draw a pattern in the dirt. He cringed a bit at the pattern on the ground, but continued with determination. Hopefully this would be the last human transmutation circle he would ever see.

Despite the shock on his friends' faces, he stood in the center of the circle and clapped his hands together. "I'll be right back," he said. He hoped that his expression was much more confident than he felt. "Here comes the Fullmetal Alchemist's final transmutation." He slammed his hands against the ground and felt the disturbingly familiar feeling of being deconstructed. He felt his body disappearing from the world and his consciousness slipping away with it.

When he opened his eyes, he saw nothing but a white silhouette of himself, sitting casually in front of a large door. "Come for your brother, eh?" The thing, "Truth" as it called itself, never seemed to talk. Edward only felt its words resonate inside him. "How do you plan to extract a human being? How will you pay? Will you offer me your entire being?"

Edward ignored its suggestion and walked past it as casually as he could. As he walked up to the door that seemed to hold all the secrets of the world, he felt his confidence gradually increase. The only thing that would be equal to a soul would be the laws of the entire world itself.

"All is one, one is all," he thought to himself.

"I've got your payment right here," Edward said, not even bothering to confirm his suspicions. "It's really big, though."

A moment of silence passed before anything happened. "The gate of truth lies within every human being. Thus, it is also the potential of those human beings to use alchemy." Edward heard the words echo through his mind. The words were mostly emotionless, but he thought he could sense a bit of surprise in them. "Will you sacrifice the power to use alchemy and simply become an ordinary human being?"

"I've always been an ordinary human. Just a little man who couldn't even save one poor girl they turned into a chimera. Someone who caught a glimpse of the 'Truth' and started over-relying on its gift only to fail again and again… It's all been one long dance."

"Are you sure you're alright with losing this?"

Edward turned around to catch a glimpse of Truth's featureless face. "I don't need alchemy as long as I've got my friends."

As Truth gave him a wide grin, Edward turned back around to face the Gate and mentally prepared himself to pay the largest toll that alchemy had to offer but Truth's next words shocked him.

"Well it looks like you're not done with your journey just yet, alchemist," he heard. It took him a second to register what it had just said. He turned around to look at Truth. Ed had never realized it until seeing it, but without the wide grin usually covered most of its head, staring at a completely blank face was an unnerving experience.

"What- what do you mean by that?" Edward asked uncertainly.

Truth gave him a shrug. A chill ran through Edward's spine.

A few seconds passed before Edward regained his senses. Shaking his head, he steeled his mind and turned to face Truth. "What the hell are you going on about?"

"I'm that I don't know how to transmute myself. You were the only human to ever try."

Edward realized exactly why Truth's simple shrug had bothered him so much. He'd never expected a being called "Truth" to be uncertain about anything.

"So is that it? Is this the end?" Edward asked, clenching his fists together until his knuckles turned white.

"No," it replied, giving Edward a spark of hope. "Probably," it continued, giving a weak chuckle as its smile reappeared on its face once again.

"I don't know how to transmute myself, but that doesn't mean that nobody knows how," it said as it pointed upwards. Edward followed the direction of the finger and looked up to the sky.

A large door. It was nearly identical to the one floating below it, but something about it made him shiver. His own Truth had never made him feel like this, even as his limbs were being torn from his body, even as the collective knowledge of the world was crammed into his mortal brain.

He didn't understand how he knew, but he knew that the second door wasn't something right. It wasn't natural. It didn't belong.

"You of all people should know that there's more than one way to see the world," it told him, the wide grin fully visible now. "Your world isn't black and white. Why would my world be so easy?"

Edward couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from the gate. He told himself that it was silly, but he couldn't help but think that he would be attacked if he dared to look away from it. He barely even heard Truth's words as something screamed at him to distance himself, but another voice in his head was much louder. A voice that had been screaming at him for his entire life.

"So if I go in there I'll get my brother back."

Though Edward kept his eyes fixed onto the second gate, he knew that Truth shrugged again.

"I don't know if it's possible in the first place," it admitted casually. "But whatever the answer to that question is, you'll learn it in there."

"Of course," Edward said grimly. "Just my luck."

The door above him opened up and Edward saw darkness within, again so similar to the darkness within his own gate of Truth, but somehow so different. He ignored the urge to turn away and simply extended a hand to the slow tendrils of darkness that creeped out.

As a tendril touched his hand, he let out a sigh of relief and finally allowed himself to turn away. Now that he was trapped, there was no way that he could give into the temptation of simply running away and abandoning his little brother for good. He turned to Truth. "Got any tips for me?" he asked.

Truth didn't drop its smile. "It's an entirely different world out there, operated by an entirely different Truth. You'll be a foreign object, so be careful about what might happen over there. Will you be eliminated by the world itself? Will you still subscribe to my Truth? Will your body assimilate to the laws of the new world? Who knows? I've never been so clueless, it's not in my nature." It shook its head though it was still grinning. "Whatever the case, have fun. Hopefully you'll see me again soon."

Edward nodded as he felt the new Gate of Truth pull him towards itself.

Then everything seemed to explode.

Whenever he entered the Gate, which was much more often than he had liked, he felt as if the entirety of his body was systematically being deconstructed. It was a painful and unnerving process whenever he felt his body simply leaving him. This Gate was different in that he wasn't being deconstructed but instead, he felt his body being overloaded with a large amount of energy. At least with his Gate, you couldn't feel the pain in an arm you didn't have. With this Gate, he had no such solace.

But it was over in an instant.

He opened his eyes to find he was lying down on his back. The ground was hard and he could feel a light breeze tickling his face. His vision was blurry, but he could see a faint white light shining down on him from overhead.

After moving around a bit, he confirmed that he was still completely there, though he still wasn't all too used to having both of him arms being made of flesh.

Despite the terror that he felt from merely looking at the gate that had swallowed him, he had to admit that it wasn't nearly as bad as he'd expected. He turned over onto his side, still too weak to actually stand up. His vision was still slightly blurry, but it was getting better now. Edward was pleased to learn that it was only temporary.

Though he gave out a big sigh, he decided to be grateful that he was alive in the first place, and that he had the opportunity to finally revive his little brother's body, even though it involved travelling so far into the unknown. He was grateful that the foreign Gate hadn't decided to kill him, and he was grateful that he wasn't killed as soon as he fell into this new world. As peaceful and empty his surroundings seemed, he had no way of knowing his exact situation, though the fact that he hadn't been attacked since he'd arrived was a good indication that things could be worse.

He was hit with the sudden realization that he could see again. It didn't seem like he'd blacked out so he didn't understand how he couldn't notice something so drastic, but in either case he decided to use his new gift of sight.

He instantly regretted it.

At the sight of someone laying down a few meters away from him, he'd had the stupid hope that it was a friendly face. It wasn't a hope he could keep for too long. It wasn't something he was proud of, but he'd been too experienced in death to not recognize a dead body when he saw one.

He sighed.

"Same old, same old," he muttered turning over onto his back once again, promptly passing out.

Somewhere nearby, a Huntsman tried to turn in the direction of the strange voice. He grunted in pain as his body protested the movement, and he conceded to it, laying back against the broken section of wall that propped up his dying body.

He sighed as well. Even if the voice hadn't been a figment of his imagination, he knew that there were no other Hunters nearby. If someone was still alive here, they wouldn't be for much longer.

Instead of focusing on things that he couldn't change, he focused on staying awake and praying to a God.

It didn't give him much comfort to pray to a God that would most likely send him to the fiery depths of hell for failing to protect the village that he'd been assigned to protect, so instead he prayed that the dead villagers would have a fulfilling life in whatever laid beyond it.

* * *

"So the next town is… uh-huh… uh-huh… We're lost."

"We're not lost. The next town is Shion. My family used to visit it all the time."

"Oh yeah. Don't you have, like, four sisters?"

"Uh, seven."

As Ruby giggled, Nora chose that moment to speak up and said, "You know, that actually explains a lot."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"So, what did you guys do there?" Ruby interrupted, even though she knew that an argument probably wouldn't erupt anyways.

"Oh, all sorts of stuff! Over here is a great hiking trail, and over here is where we went camping all the time. I got my own tent because I was special. Also, so my sisters would stop braiding my hair."

"Didn't like the look?"

"Yeah, they just kept doing pigtails, but personally, I think I'm more of a "warrior's wolftail" kind of guy."

"That's just a ponytail."

"I stand by what I said."

"Uh, guys?" Nora said, interrupting Ruby's train of thought as she tried to imagine Jaune with longer hair.

"Huh?" "What?" she and Jaune said, almost simultaneously.

As Ruby started to look around for Nora, something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. At first she'd just assumed the climbing grey pillars in the sky were just dark clouds, but after a second she finally took in the sight in front of her. Not clouds. Smoke.

The map slipped away from her fingers, but she couldn't help but ignore it in favour of running forwards. Her mind drew up a blank as she followed behind the rest of her team, trusting in them to have analyzed the bodies that littered the streets for any signs of life before running past them. She tried to do it herself, but she couldn't help but tear her eyes away at the sight of mangled limbs and people who were simply missing major parts of their body.

As she saw her team pull up to a stop ahead, she joined them. "There could be survivors," she said, even though she saw Jaune and Nora already scanning the streets. She just felt like it needed to be said.

"Over here!" Ren called out, already moving deeper into the village. Ruby looked up at Jaune who gave her an uncertain look back.

They ran to Ren a second later. Ruby didn't know if she was the first to notice, but she was the first to point it out. "A Huntsman," she said. More importantly, a Huntsman that was still alive and moving.

"What happened?" Jaune asked. "Who killed all these people?"

The Huntsman coughed twice and looked up at them before speaking up with a pleading look in his eyes.

"Behind," he simply said. Ruby tensed up and almost turned to look around, but he spoke up again. "Behind me. Please."

Before she could even react, Nora had already rushed past Ren and the Huntsman, running past the broken wall and scanning around for whatever the Huntsman was talking about. She seemed to spot something and broke into a sprint before skidding to a stop a few meters away right next to a body.

"I got him," she shouted out, leaning down to pick up the body and lift it up in a princess carry. Ruby gasped as Nora brought the body closer. It was a teenage boy with long golden hair and tattered clothes, but there was an important detail that took precedence.

He was breathing.

"Is he?" the Huntsman spoke up, his voice terrifyingly weak.

"He's alive," Ruby replied. She didn't know if it was for the Huntsman's sake or her own that she needed to clarify that. "He's alive," she said again.

The huntsman started to cough again, but looking down at him, Ruby could tell that he had a weak smile on his face.

"Thank God," he said. "Thank God I could at least save one."

It wasn't to any of them that he was addressing that to. As she saw the light in his eyes completely fade away as his head tilted to the ground, she looked around. Her eyes caught Ren's for a moment before he too looked down at the ground. He shook his head.

Ren stood up and walked back the way that they had entered the village from, heading for the bag that he'd dropped on the floor before rushing to the now dead Huntsman.

"Should we bury him?" Nora asked, her voice uncertain and low.

"We should go," came Ren's distant reply. "It's not safe here. Not for us, not for him," he said, jerking a thumb towards the boy that slept peacefully in Nora's arms.

Nora looked towards Ren, then at the boy in her arms, then back up, now with a bit more determination set in her expression. She turned to follow her partner's steps.

Ruby turned to Jaune just as he lifted his hand, covering his eye with it. While as far as she could tell he wasn't crying, Ruby still placed a gentle hand on his arm.

"It'll be okay," she said, hoping that she sounded a lot more sure of that than she actually was.

Jaune sighed and lowered his hand. Though it came away dry, Jaune still kept his head down. "I'm just tired of losing everything," he said.

She smiled and looked up at him. He was looking down at her so she smiled back. "We didn't lose everything," she said, turning to look at Nora who was currently helping Ren get the boy onto a more comfortable position on his back. "Not today."

* * *

 **So here's my rewrite of ANSR. As I hope you've noticed, the story is no longer set near the beginning of Vol 1, but is now set in the beginning of Vol 4, specifically right in the middle of Vol 4 Ep 2.**

 **The biggest things I get by changing the setting are:**

 **1\. It's no longer a school setting so I'm no longer forced to incorporate the school life into anything.**

 **2\. The character cast of NWNR is cut in half compared to ANSR.**

 **3\. Ed is a lot freer. While he's never controlled in ANSR, there's no question that he's forced to follow Ozpin's rules if he wants his help.**

 **Unfortunately I lose my top three favourite RWBY characters by writing this way (unless I find some way to incorporate them back in the story), but sacrifices must be made!**

 **With that in mind, let's get the story going.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Trying out a new formula where I upload shorter chapters more often. This may result in weird pacing or chapters that end in strange spots. All testing in progress.**

* * *

 _There is nothing. Some dreams contain pictures or short nonsensical scenes of life, often forgotten after the dreamer rouses from their sleep. Some dreams simply don't. Some dreams are devoid of any visual component and the dreamer is left there in the void._

 _The only thing that exists is a voice. Female. Echoing. Desperate._

 _"Jaune," it cries out. It is somehow familiar, but through a dream, nothing is ever certain. It is hard to even determine if the voice is familiar, or if the word is._

 _Another sound is heard. The metallic sound of a blade being drawn. Perhaps it is cruel to say that this sound feels more familiar, but it is hard to forget it when remembering and reacting to the rasp of steel could mean life or death._

 _"Jaune," the voice cries out again. Still feminine, still breathy, and still barely recognizable. Something's changed. It sounds even more frantic than before._

 _"Jaune!"_

* * *

Edward Elric woke up and immediately regretted it. It wasn't the first time he'd woken up after an intense battle, but that didn't mean that he was eager to experience it again. The human body was by no means invincible and whenever he tested that claim, he always loathed the next morning when the adrenaline would wear off and the pain would come back in full force.

He let out a low sigh as the dull pain coursed through his body. He froze when he heard the sounds that followed his sigh.

The clatter of a stick as it fell onto the ground and a sharp gasp.

Immediately he jumped into action, clapping his hands together despite the groaning of his sore muscles and placing his left hand over his right arm, focusing his mind on the alchemical formula necessary to morph his automail arm into a deadly weapon of combat, all while he rolled back and jumped onto his feet.

But while the sparks flew, from his left hand, they fizzled out as the deconstruction and reconstruction formula for steel proved to be ineffective against his recently renewed arm of flesh. And while he did kick up in the air, his legs caught against the sleeping bag he was occupying and prevented him from gaining enough momentum to rock himself onto his feet.

"Woah there," a male voice said with a stressed whisper. "It's okay, calm down. We rescued you from the village. You're safe."

It was a hard thing to do, trusting in a voice that belonged to a complete stranger, but after considering it for a few seconds, Edward decided that it was fortunate that he'd forgotten that he'd lost his automail arm. If the owner of that voice wanted to hurt or kill him, he'd have done it a long time ago. He seemed to hold no desire to harm him, but if Edward transmuted a weapon, that might have changed.

Edward sighed and looked towards the direction of the voice. There, illuminated by the low red light of a smouldering fire pit, was a tall blonde man who was currently making his way closer. Edward narrowed his eyes at the sight of what looked to be armour, but held his tongue when he noticed the sword and scabbard that hung at the man's waist.

"I'm a Huntsman," the man said as he came closer. "My friends and I can protect you until we can get you to somewhere safe."

Edward's response was automatic. "Huntsman?" he asked. While the phrase wasn't exactly a foreign one, the way that the man said it with pride seemed a bit strange, as if it were a title that should hold more weight than a simple wild game hunter.

"Er…" The man reached up to scratch at the back of his head with a sheepish smile, and it was at that moment that Edward realized that the man was much younger than he'd originally thought. "Just a Huntsman-in-training actually…"

"But we're all great at kicking Grimm butt."

The new voice surprised him, but Edward turned his head to the side with slow deliberation. There, sitting up from a red sleeping bag, was a small girl with short black hair. Unlike her blonde companion there was no mistaking that she was young.

"Oh hey, Ruby. Did we wake you up?" the blonde asked.

The girl who was apparently named Ruby shook her head. "I was already awake," she said. "I had a dream about… actually that's not important right now."

Even though Edward was taking extra caution not to make any sudden movements in order to not put these people on guard, he couldn't stop himself from jerking back as Ruby seemed to disappear in a small flurry of rose petals and reappear in front of him an instant later. Thankfully, the girl didn't seem to notice or care.

"Are you feeling okay? Do you need anything?" she asked.

Edward's response was more automatic than anything, as his mind was busy trying to understand what had just happened. "I'm fine." His stomach groaned out in disagreement.

Ruby's eyes softened and she started to chuckle softly. Off behind her, Edward could hear the blonde teen laughing along with her. Though he didn't feel like he could spare the energy to be embarrassed, he felt his face grow hot anyways.

"Okay, fine," he said. "If you have any spare food that would be great."

"Coming right up," the blonde said. "We only have canned food, but it'll take a few minutes to heat it up. Cold beans are just gross."

Edward sat up a bit higher at the prospect of sating the deep hunger that he felt. "Cold beans are fine actually. I'm starving." His stomach rumbled out its own agreement.

The blonde gave him an odd look but eventually shrugged and turned his back to rummage through a large travel sack. He spoke out over the din of rattling cans, saying, "Ruby, could you get the can opener from Ren's bag?"

"Sure thing," she replied, backing away from Edward to fulfill the blonde's request.

Depending on how fast they were, Edward knew he only had a few seconds at most, but he wouldn't let the opportunity pass by him regardless. While both of their backs were turned, his head whipped around frantically, trying to take in as much of his surroundings as he could, searching for any information that could help him in the case that he decided that this situation was one that he needed to escape. Ruby and the blonde seemed nice, but he'd been betrayed by his expectations before.

The first thing he noticed was a pair of bodies on the ground. His paranoid mind might have jumped to the conclusion that they were dead if it weren't for the soft snoring that came from one of them. He couldn't determine anything about them other than their hair colours as they were both turned away from them, but he moved on, determined not to linger on unnecessary details. His eyes narrowed when he saw what sat near the bag that the blonde was currently hunched over. A cluster tin can with a string attached to it. An alarm.

He couldn't see where the string went, but he'd have to be careful if he decided to run. There were probably more alarms that he hadn't noticed yet. Finally, his eyes wandered near Ruby's bag.

A long mechanical object painted red and black. His eyes shouldn't have lingered as long as they did, but he couldn't take his eyes off the unfamiliar object. A part of him was trying to explain that he was only looking so hard because he was searching for any clue to solve the mysteries of this new world, but he knew that he couldn't take his eyes off for a much simpler reason.

He was curious. He needed to know what its purpose was. It was obviously high tech and served some sort of specialized function, but he had no clue about what that function could be.

As a scientist he couldn't help but be fascinated by whatever he didn't already know. In the end, he blamed his intense thirst for knowledge on the fact that he didn't notice Ruby smiling down at him until he looked up.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Ruby asked.

Edward wasn't sure if he'd heard right, but for some reason he was reminded of Winry whenever somebody ever mentioned automail. "Excuse me?"

"Ruby? Can opener?" the blonde called from across the campsite.

Ruby tossed the can opener backwards over her shoulder and ignored the "ow" that followed, never turning away from Edward and never dropping her smile.

"Isn't he just the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen?" Ruby asked again, this time picking up the red and black object and nearly shoving it into his face.

Just because it was worded differently, didn't mean that Edward understood the question any better. "Excuse me?" he asked again.

"I guess introductions are in order," Ruby continued, seemingly uncaring of the utter confusion that shone on Edward's face. In the span of a second, Ruby spun the object around in her hands, unfurling it into the shape of a scythe and slamming the blade of said scythe into the ground. Edward idly considered that if she were an enemy, his lack of reaction meant that he'd be dead on the spot, but a larger part of him was still dumbfounded by the excited glint in Ruby's eyes. "This is my baby, Crescent Rose," Ruby said, smiling and stroking the side of the scythe's blade. "Crescent Rose, meet..."

There was a short pause in the conversation as Ruby stared directly into his still confused eyes.

"Umm..." she finally said, shifting her eyes to the side, pointedly avoiding eye contact with him. "What was your name again?"

There was a short chuckle as a hand appeared on Ruby's shoulder and pushed her aside without much resistance. The blonde appeared from behind her and held his hand out, with a can of soup and a spoon sitting in his palm. "Here," he said.

Edward graciously took it, but once he took his first bite he found down he was a lot hungrier than he'd first thought and started shoveling the bland beans into his mouth. Within a few seconds, he was done with the can, but nowhere near finished sating his newfound hunger. Holding the empty tin out, he asked, "You guys got any more?"

The blonde regarded him with a surprised expression, but nevertheless took the tin from his hands. "Alright, then. I guess I'll-"

"It's fine I'll do it," Ruby said, nearly shouting as she rushed over to the blonde's bag and rummaged around for a fresh can of food.

The blonde stared at Ruby for a few seconds, before giving Edward a shrug and a grin. "Ruby's just like that," he said, pointing his thumb over to her. "She can kill Grimm like no other, but when it comes to social situations she's kind of a mess. Still, introducing her weapon before introducing herself? The first time I met her, I found her in an explosion and I still think that this is somehow worse."

Edward raised an eyebrow. "A literal explosion?" While he wasn't a stranger to dangerous situations himself, the way that the blonde said it so casually was a bit surprising. "Is that a common thing for you?" he asked, probing for a bit of information on the typical lifestyles of the denizens of this world. While it probably wouldn't lead to any huge discoveries, he had to start somewhere.

"For Ruby?" The blonde shrugged. "Kind of? She got into all sorts of trouble last year at least, and I'm sure at least some of her adventures involved explosions."

Despite his situation, Edward couldn't stop himself from smiling. "She's a trouble magnet, huh? I can't say I don't know how that's like." Letting out a sigh, he let himself fall backwards and raised his right arm into the air. While he inspected it and came to the conclusion that he badly needed to cut his fingernails, something in the background stood out. While stargazing had never been a hobby of his, he at least knew that the moon in his world wasn't broken like the one currently staring down at him. "Looks like I'm definitely not in Amestris anymore," he muttered to himself.

"What was that?" the blonde asked.

Edward sighed again and sat up. "It was nothing," he said. "So do you get to see a lot of explosions in your life too, or is that just Ruby?"

The blonde chuckled. "Yeah, I've definitely seen way more explosions than most people, but that's more because I've lived with Nora for about an year now," he said, jerking a thumb behind him. Even without having to look in the direction he was pointing at, Edward assumed that he was talking about one of the two sleeping bodies that he saw during his brief survey of the camp. "She's the one in the pink sleeping bag, by the way. The guy in the purple sleeping bag is Ren."

Edward nodded and extended a hand. "I'm Edward. Edward Elric."

The blonde's eyes widened for a second before he let out an awkward chuckle and scratched the back of his head. "Looks like Ruby's not the only one who forgot to introduce themselves first." The blonde reached over and took Edward's extended hand. "Sorry for the late introduction. The name's Jaune. Jaune Arc."

Edward wasn't proud to say that he was an excellent liar, but with his lifestyle of skirting around dangerous secrets and subterfuge, hiding his emotions was a skill that he'd mastered out of necessity. It was how he'd survived under the Military's watchful eye, and it was how his smile didn't falter as he shook the blonde's hand. He hadn't noticed it before, but at the mention of his name, he couldn't help but get the feeling that he definitely knew the blonde already.

Edward was confident that he'd never seen him before in his life, but looking into the blonde's smiling eyes gave him an odd sense of nostalgia. It wasn't a bad feeling by any means, but to the scientist in him, the feeling of unexplainable uncertainty was absolute torture.

Why did he seem so familiar?

Where had he heard the name, "Jaune," before?

* * *

 **And as they continue to stare deep into each other's eyes, they fall into a kiss… Just kidding.**

* * *

 **Deleted line:**

 **Ruby: "Why do you sound exactly like my Uncle?"**

* * *

 **Okay, so quick thought. A team of four hunters goes out into Grimm-infested lands and once they fall asleep, they don't assign a rotating shift of guards? In RWBY Vol 4 Ep 2, Ruby wakes up and is surprised to see Jaune not in his sleeping bag. So he wasn't supposed to be keeping watch? And if he was supposed to be keeping watch, he just left his friends alone and defenseless against potential Grimm attacks while he trained a good distance away and wore himself out? Tsk tsk RWBY writers.**

 **In this version of the story, I had Jaune forgo his training in the event of finding a civilian to rescue, and I had them set up a makeshift alarm system to warn them of any incoming Grimm attacks. I could see them setting up an alarm system in RWBY canon offscreen.**

* * *

 **Crescent Rose is a boy. Deal with it.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Been busy with Nanowrimo until now. Technically it ends tonight, but I'm not gonna be able to complete in time anyways so whatever. Wanted a change of pace anyways.**

 **Very very very short excerpt. Honestly doesn't deserve its own chapter, but it's a complete enough passage in itself so I didn't see any point of delaying its upload.**

* * *

More often than not, Qrow Branwen tended to overthink things. Ever since he could remember, he'd hurt many people's feelings simply because he was much too suspicious of them for seemingly no reason, or at least, no good reason. Aside from a few people who truly earned his trust, he could never let his guard down and as a result he closed himself off from a majority of the world.

It was a bad habit of his and he acknowledged that, but he had no intention of changing it any time soon. Especially as a Huntsman who primarily worked alone in rougher territories, his suspicious nature had already saved him from a knife in the back a countless number of times. The only time he would "fix" his tendency to overthink things was when he decided that life wasn't worth living any more.

He peered over the edge of the cliff, looking down between the tree canopy below. His eyes followed the occasional glimpses of the red cape that he could see through the trees, indicating that one of his primary reasons to live was on the move, but he couldn't stop his attention from drifting to the accompanying glimpses of golden hair.

A new element. The brats picked up an injured civilian at Shion. Or so it seemed like that at the surface. Qrow's eyes narrowed.

While he didn't seen what had happened to the village beforehand, he inspected the wreckage after the brats had left. He wasn't able to figure out much about how the village had been destroyed, but whatever disaster had befallen it, it was very thorough. Not a single building with its walls intact, not a single set of footprints that didn't lead to a face-down body, not a single trace of life left.

None except for the boy, of course.

A civilian, young, alone, weaponless. He had been the sole survivor of whatever had attacked the village. Qrow had never been a believer of good luck since he'd unlocked his semblance, but if a person survived a Grimm attack when a trained Huntsman couldn't… well that was just a bit too optimistic to think that was just luck, wasn't it?

Unfortunately, it seemed like "too optimistic" was a perfect way to describe Ruby and her friends. While there was no blatant hostility from the new kid, it seemed like they were all getting along very well, which was enough to set off a million alarms in Qrow's mind. What kind of civilian would have the leisure of being so friendly after such a traumatic incident? Admittedly, Qrow rarely had reason to interact with an auraless civilian or people in general, but that didn't mean he didn't know how they worked. Many civilians them were safe and happy as long as they had Huntsmen to protect them, and they were used to that lifestyle. While Shion wasn't quite on the same scale as a large city like Vale, it had walls and it had a handful of Huntsmen. That was quite enough for Qrow to easily bet that only a few civilians in that village had ever seen a Grimm before, with even less having been attacked by one.

So why was this kid so unperturbed? Here he was. Alone with a handful of strangers, walking through a dense forest, full of cover for nasty monsters to be hiding, having lost his home, his family, his friends, his entire life as he knew it. Why was the kid taking everything in stride?

While Qrow was fully aware that he was a chronic pessimist, he also felt like his suspicion was completely justified in this case. Even so, it wasn't like he could swoop down there and shake the kid down himself. All he could do was watch for any shifty moves and stay close.

Qrow let out an explosive sigh. He heard a low growl below him and looked down in mild surprise, but simply shrugged and pushed his sword a bit deeper into the dying Ursa that he was standing on. "Sorry, buddy," he said, casually kicking away the large claw that swung weakly at him. "I was thinking about something else. Didn't mean to ignore you."

Qrow didn't use any more strength, but lazily leaned forward onto sword, letting his body weight push it slowly through the Ursa's body, finally stopping once the hilt of his sword stopped him from driving the sword further into the gargantuan Ursa's chest.

As its body slowly started to evaporate into black smoke, Qrow reached into his coat to retrieve the small flask that he carried around with him. He shook it once to find that it was half-empty. It only took a second for him to decide that it should be completely empty. He unscrewed the top and held the flask upside down over his mouth.

He felt the Ursa's body start to crumble away unevenly beneath his feet, but he continued to drink. Even as his footing gave away from underneath him, he reached out with his free hand to grab his sword, and slid forwards, off the Ursa and off the cliff. As he fell, he screwed the lid back onto the flask with one hand and stowed it back into his pocket.

He hoped that the kids would get to the next village quickly. The sooner they were rid of that anomaly, the better he would sleep. A booze refill wouldn't hurt either.

* * *

 **I wonder if Qrow has multiple flasks or if he makes a pit stop to refill every day to a nearby village using bird mode in order to satiate his alcoholic tendencies.**


End file.
